Mi oh Mi ... what's McIvor up to now?

HIS property empire has collapsed, $260 million of investors' money is in peril, the corporate watchdog is asking hard questions and even his mum doesn't seem too impressed with his behaviour.

But none of that seems to faze Equititrust founder Mark McIvor, who CBD can reveal is behind a new venture trying to raise more money from investors.

The Gold Coast financier's name is nowhere to be seen on the website of Mi Guardian Fiduciary, ''a new paradigm in financial services''.

Nor is it anywhere to be found inside an information memorandum from Mi Guardian Fiduciary, seeking ''sophisticated investors'' to buy cumulative redeemable preference shares in a company called Mi Citizens Union.

McIvor is also not a director of Mi Guardian Fiduciary, possibly because it doesn't appear to exist as a company, or of Mi Citizens Union itself. That company boasts as directors Father Richard Pascoe, said to be a Catholic priest, and Brock Turner, said to be McIvor's brother-in-law.

However, Australian Securities and Investments Commission records show that, through two of his companies, McIvor controls 93 of the 100 ''founders' shares'' in Mi Citizens Union, issued last month when the company was set up.

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The offer document shows that McIvor wants to set the company up to provide ''a practical vision and business model to empower the re-building of community commercial and investment banking, from 'the ground up' ''.

McIvor wants to build an alternative to the ''behemoth'' banks who he blames for the collapse of Equititrust, rather than his decision to lend money to developers who couldn't repay it.

''We must now rise up and cease to be influenced by events that arise from idealess, bullying and non-competitive conduct,'' Comrade McIvor exhorts.

The 1600 investors in Equititrust's $203 million Income Fund seem unlikely to heed McIvor's call to arms.

In a report to investors on November 9, receiver David Whyte of BDO estimated they'll receive between 15¢ and 22¢ in the dollar.

And McIvor should probably also forget about mooching off mum Janice. On Monday, she told the Queensland Supreme Court she now had no relationship with her son.

Janice told the court she signed paperwork ''because I trusted Mark'' but the two fell out after she found she had signed $22 million worth of mortgages and guarantees.

ASIC has also fallen out with McIvor. It raided Equititrust's offices last December on allegations he improperly used his position for personal benefit to the detriment of investors and did not act honestly with borrowers.

Cake falls flat

SURE, a free lamington sounds great. A free mouldy lamington, not so much.

Unhappiness spread like rising damp on Monday at Gail Kelly's Westpac after some of the 15,000 lamingtons handed out to staff at the bank's Sydney headquarters turned out to be riddled with fungal spores.

The cakes were distributed to staff as part of a new Aussie-centric marketing campaign featuring soft-focus imagery of kids at beaches and gorgeous scenery, with not a Southern Cross tattoo or a rioting Cronulla racist to be seen.

Westpac spin doctor Danny John furiously downplayed the extent of the infestation, telling CBD just four lamingtons - or, as he called them, ''gorgeous soft succulent sponges'' - were encrusted with disgusting mould.

''We did [also] distribute Anzac biscuits because we were being very patriotic - they went to the branches,'' he said.

While the fate of the biscuits is unknown, John confirmed all the lamingtons were gone.

''I ate mine with a cup of tea,'' he said.

Jumping the gun

A lunch hosted by CBD's smaller siblings in Melbourne yesterday had Telstra's chief telephonist David Thodey reveal all on how those great management strategies and targets are cooked up. Usually plenty of hot air. In Thodey's case he was discussing ''Project New'' that is being rolled out across the telco.

''I'm challenging my company about what our business needs to look like in 2018 … I think it will be radically different.'' This raised the question of why 2018? ''It was actually 2020 but I just brought it forward two years,'' Thodey said.